Calcite, Belgium

This article has been prepared for the Mindat Best Minerals project. The aim of this project is to present information on important localities and specimens for each mineral specie. As new finds are made and new knowledge is made available the individual articles will be revised to include this information. Readers are encouraged to contribute by posting a response in this thread. All revisions will be stored, thus ensuring traceability and availability of previously included information. A complete list of articles can be found in the list of finished Best Minerals articles. To cite this version: Neutkens, H. (2013): , Belgium. revision 1.3 Mindat Best Minerals Project, article "mesg-66-130502". Please be advised that the photos cannot be used without the consent of the copyright holder

CaCO3

Trigonal

Calcite from Leffe

Calcite from Leffe

Calcite from Leffe

The mountainous regions of Belgium, mostly south of the Sambre and Meuse rivers, consist for the greater part of Limestone plateaus. Although there are other types of geologic environments in Belgium, for example the metamorphic rocks encountered in several ereas of the Ardennes mountains and the eruptive rock in the Hainaut province where Calcite crystals have been found, the mainstay of Belgian Calcite specimens come from the Devonian and Dinantian Limestones. For ages Belgian Limestone has been exploited in quarries, nowadays mainly for building purposes like road construction, ornamental stones and concrete but also for the glass, food and chemical industries. From the middle ages onwards (and probably even earlier) Belgium also has been a prime source for "marble". Actually it’s not a genuine marble but a dense and hard limestone that shows very appealing ornamental patterns. The red “marble” found around Rochefort and the black and blue “marble” encountered around Yvoir and Sprimont (pierre bleu and marbre noir) have always been in high demand and to a certain extend still are, they have been exported throughout Europe. It has been said that there’s Belgian "marble" in St Peter‘s church in Rome.

A short note by Ingo Loeffler, on the availability of top-class Belgian Calcite specimens on the international mineral market.

The Belgian Calcites are of outstanding quality on a European scale, some localities produced and are producing some of the best Calcites in Europe. The point is, however, that the amount of these outstanding specimens coming out of the quarries is simply too small, and specimens usually don't leave Belgium. That's how it must have been in most quarries, too little really excellent specimens, and the geology didn't allow for large pockets to be encountered on a regular basis. That was surely different in, for instance, Elmwood or some of the Chinese localities, where the geology allowed for large (gigantic) pockets filled with Calcite and other minerals to be encountered regularly. That's the difference between Belgium and some world-class localities. Therefore the Calcites from Belgium will remain a rarity in collection outside of Belgium, especially the outstanding ones, wherever they're from; Beez, Loverval, Landelies, Mon-sur-Marchienne etc.

Calcite from the Dinantian Limestone

The Dinantian Limestone has been very rich in very good localities for Calcite, and to a certain extend remains as such. In Biesmeree, Bioul, Denee and Haut-le-Wastia Calcite crystals (mainly scalenohedral habits) have been found that rival many in the world.

Arguably the best Calcites ever found in Belgium came from the Pierre Bleu quarry near the small village of Biesmeree.The most dominant form encountered was the scalenohedron in colours ranging from yellow to a deep orange, sometimes large crystals over 15cm in length were encountered.The quarry delivered a lot of museum quality specimens, many of which reside in private collections in Belgium.Sadly the quarry closed down in the 1980s. This makes it very difficult to obtain specimens, hardly any specimens come to the market, especially not the good ones.

The quarry near the village of Haut-le-Wastia is the only quarry in this small region west of the river Meuse that is still operated, albeit on an irregular basis, the quarries of Biesmeree, Denee and Bioul have closed down. The dominant form encountered in Haut-le-Wastia is the scalenohedron, sometimes with appealing Marcasite phantoms inside. Occasionally very large crystals can be found, up to 40cm in length (see locality photo one)

Very nice specimens came out of the quarry near the village of Bioul, very close to Haut-le-Wastia. The quarry has closed down.

A little bit to the east, north of Dinant (the birthplace of Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone!) there are several quarries. Close to the abbey of Leffe (famous for it’s trappist beer) lies the Montorguill quarry.

The Monorgueil Quarry is a very large quarry operated for gravel and concrete. A variety of habits and forms can be found, sometimes in very large sizes: scalenohedrons (up to 25cm large), rhombohedrons (up to 30cm large) and a variety of their respective twins. Large to very large calcites from the 2007/2008 finds (when a zone was hit where abundant pockets containing very large calcites where found) can be obtained from local Belgian dealers. Crystals up to 20cm large are no rarity and hence are not too expensive.

A little to the north some active quarries remain exploiting the dark compact limestone around the town of Yvoir. The so called “Pierre Bleu” or “bluestone” and the "Marbre Noir" or "black marble" are used for ornamental use. Due to the compact nature of the rock few cavities are encountered and when so they are usually very small, therefore the Calcites found in them are quite small but nevertheless very attractive. To the north-east from Yvoir the Pierre Bleu zone continues almost to Liege, especially around the townships of Sprimont and Chanxhe there remain several active quarries that exploite the Pierre Bleu for ornamental stones, the coarser limestone encountered alongside the Pierre Bleu yields gravel as a by-product.

There are two quarries near the village of Chanxhe on the banks of the Ourthe river. The main product of the quarries is the ornamental Pierre Bleu stone. In the Pierre Bleu zones one encounters a coarse Limestone very rich in large pockets that contain occasionally very large Calcite crystals. Usually the somewhat smaller crystals are more attractive and can be found "dusted" with small Marcasite crystals. Specimens are readily available.

To the west we encounter the town of Charleroi, a large somewhat decaying centre for mainly steel industry which flourished in the 19th and first halve of the 20th centuries but rapidly declined since the 1950s creating a large unemployed population, remaining so to this day. Around Charleroi there are several active quarries and a multitude of closed ones. Some of the best Calcites in the world (in my humble opinion…) came from two quarries that are situated closely together a couple of miles west of Charleroi, the La Sambre Quarry near Landelies and the Gralex quarry in Mont-sur-Marchienne.

The La Sambre quarry is situated on the banks of the river Sambre just north of the small village of Landelies.It is operated by the "Calcaires de la Sambre" company. A part of the Limestone encountered in the quarry is extremely pure, this is being processed on the site for use in the glass, food and chemical industries as well as for animal nourishment and agricultural fertilisers.The Limestone of lesser quality is being processed for gravel. Calcite crystals can be found in an extremely wide variety of habits and twins, in colours ranging from colourless, yellow, orange, amber to a dark brown, sizes get up to 20cm. In 2008 Calcite crystals could be found that showed a very distinct and appealing olive green colour, they remain a rarity.Specimens are readily available and will not cost too much, however a truly good specimen will command a somewhat higher price.

The Gralex quarry near Mont-sur-Marchienne was very frequently visited by collectors during the years it was being operated. In the quarry beautifull Calcite crystals could be found in an array of different forms and color. Some of the rhombohedral crystals reached sizes of over 30cm whereas the scalenohedrons were relatively smaller but therefore they showed attractive twinning and nicely crystallized lustrous faces.The quarry ceased operations about ten years ago and the lower levels have since been submerged. Specimens are getting harder to obtain.

Large pieces with big scalenohedrons as well as beautiful clear twins have been collected during the time when the Solvay quarry (a little south of Charleroi, between the townships of Loverval and Couillet) was still in operation. In the mid 1990s there were many large plates with big scalenohedrons on the market but nowadays the quarry is not being operated any more so the opportunities for finding specimens are very poor. Only one collector was authorized to collect in the quarry. Good specimens are therefore rare and quite expensive.

Calcite from the old part of Beez quarry, fantastic specimen measuring 13x10x6cm

Calcite from the old part of Beez quarry, fantastic specimen measuring 13x10x6cm

Calcite from the old part of Beez quarry, fantastic specimen measuring 13x10x6cm

Calcite from the old part of Beez quarry, fantastic specimen measuring 7x10cm

Calcite from the old part of Beez quarry, fantastic specimen measuring 7x10cm

Calcite from the old part of Beez quarry, fantastic specimen measuring 7x10cm

Calcite, FOV10cm

Calcite, specimen 10cm

Calcite, FOV10cm

Calcite, specimen 10cm

Calcite, FOV10cm

Calcite, specimen 10cm

10x10cm

Crystal 2,3cm

10x10cm

Crystal 2,3cm

10x10cm

Crystal 2,3cm

The large Gralex quarry is located near the village of Beez, edging the outskirts of the provincial town of Namur on the banks of the river Meuse.It is operated by the Gralex company for gravel and concrete. In the old part of the quarry that was operated until the late 1980s very nice twinned scalenohedrons were found. Nowadays the quarry exploits its more recently developed eastern part which still delivers its fair share of Calcite specimens although the quality of these is far less then those found in the old part of the quarry. These "old quarry" Calcites are amongst the best ever found in Belgium and whenever a truly good specimens enters the market it will command higher prices, but the chances of one being available are very slim. Nice Calcites have also been found in the nearby quarries of Sclayn and Maizeret both situated between Namur and Liege.

Active quarry situated between Namur and Liege on the banks of the river Meuse. Attractive Calcite specimens have come out of the quarry on a regular basis. Recently Calcite on Schalenblende specimens have come out of the quarry, with Calcite in a quality uncommon for the quarry (info Paul de Bondt). The quarry is especially famous for nice finds of Fluorite in many colours during the 1980s.

The Devonian Limestone

South of the Meuse river there is a large Devonian limestone plateau covering the Fagne and Famenne regions. Especially nice Calcites have been found in the so called “Calestienne” region which covers a part of the Fagne and Famenne between the provincial towns of Rochefort (again famous for it’s trappist beer!) in the east , Couvin in the west and Givet (on the border with France) to the south. The Calestienne region is very rich in Pb, Zn, Cu, Fe and Fluorite deposits and all of these have been exploited over the ages. Nowadays the only exploitation is done on Limestone for building purposes. Very nice Calcite crystals have (sporadically) come out of the quarries around the small village of Wellin, about ten km west of Rochefort.

Two quarries that are located only a mile apart from each other remain in operation, one of them, the “Fond des Vaulx” quarry can be visited after applying for an authorization. The other one, the “Limites” quarry is closed for mineral collecting and therefore should not be visited. Not surprisingly the two quarries show a similar paragenesis. In 2005 they worked a zone in Fond des Vaulx quarry with exceptionally large Brachiopod fossils that contained splendid lustrous colourless calcite crystals very reminiscent to the old specimens found in Cumberland. Notable minerals that accompany the Calcites are especially Fluorite (in highly lustrous purple, yellow and sometimes green crystals), Celestine, Sphalerite and Marcasite.In 2012 a pocket was found in les Limites quarry containing very interesting and beautiful Calcites. The Calcite crystals range from colourless to black, with all shades of grey in between. The largest crystal was 18cm tall. Many specimens consisted of Calcite crystals grown oriented along treads of Marcasite crystals. Most of the Calcites displayed sulphide phantoms. Mineral collecting is strictly prohibited at les Limites quarry. The above specimens were collected during a rare authorised visit.

Quite close to Wellin, on the banks of the Lesse river, we find the now closed quarry of Resteigne, from there abundant and very nice Calcite appeared as well over the years.

Resteigne Quarry delivered a lot of outstanding Calcite specimens during the years of its operation. Especially the prismatic "nail head" Calcites were much sought after. Very attractive were large plates of Dolomite speckled with Marcasite on which large Calcite twins were positioned. Apart from the outstanding localities mentioned above some nice Calcite specimens occasionally came from other localities. Some of these were:

The village of Villers-en-Fagne used to be a centre of intensive mining in the 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly for Baryte and Fluorite. Nice Calcites were found on and off especially shortly after the second world war. Minerals encountered in Villers-en-Fagne include: Baryte, Bornite, Calcite, Cerusite, Chalcopyrite, Fluorite, Galena, Goethite, Marcasite, Pyrite, Smithsonite and Cinaberite.

During the mining operations around Moresnet-Vielle Montagne abundant Calcite has been found although the dominant carbonate there was Smithsonite for which it is famous.We need more info on specimens from this locality.

Engis, close to the town of Liege, very nicely formed Calcites where found in an array of forms.Rhisnes produced nice Calcite in the past.Can anyone help us with information and photographs of specimens from these localities?

Probably the best thing about prospecting for world class (imho) Calcite specimens in Belgium is that one can combine that with drinking the world famous Belgian beer! Use the following link to find out about hundreds of Belgian beers!http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_Belgische_bieren

Harjo,Brace yourself for all the red ink. As a writer for some magazines I have gotten used to it and I have found that in almost all cases the suggestion made to me were good ones and the articles were all the better when I followed the suggestions. If you think the suggestions I have made are not helpful, talk them over with me and we will agree on what to do.

Rock, it's not too bad....I'll see to it.I'm very busy at the moment preparing my scores, I've got about 20 concerts in the next couple of weeks, but I have to take a break every now and then from practising my notes for all the Bach Matthew Passions (to prevent strain on my fingers and for my mental health ) so it's quite therapeutic for me to dabble a bit with the article (if my wife and daughter let me...)

Rest asure Rock, I'm done for the moment, I think it doesn't look too bad now, what do you think?btw I like the destinction between the different geological regions, in the case of Belgium they are very distinct.

Harjo,It looks a lot better now. I went in and tweaked a few things and you should read it over when you get a chance to make sure I didn't screw things up. On the other articles when I attached additional photos, I started with one rather than with two like you did. Perhaps we should think about it as one additional image, two additional images.

Now you can sit back and enjoy all the people who will tell you what you got wrong. The wrong spellings, etc. etc. As time passes, hopefully others will add more to the article and expand on what you have done, and your will be diluted down somewhat. I can see that has happened to some of the stuff I have written, and the articles are much stronger for it.

Harjo,I have just made you a moderator of the Best Minerals project. You should now be able to edit any article or post here in best minerals and create new threads. Congratulations, I hope you don't regret it. You may want to consider working a bit more on your Belgian Calcite article, like making all the pictures a maximum of 400 pixels wide so you can put two images on a line and removing all the linked images and actually bringing them into the article so the users can see them all at a glance rather than have to laboriously click on each link to see them. Check out what I have done with adamite.

It seems that not only the lay out of this Begian Calcite page is changed, but there are some messages deleted by the moderator of this forum. For what reason?

I read several times in this Calcite article that the Belgian Calcites can be seen as world class, and that these calcites can be compaired by the ones that where found in the Elmwood Mine. Now after several weeks my remarks and respond on this statement is gone !

This is very strange, and not so good for the reliability of this article and the credibility of it!

Harjo,It still looks good. Even better I think. What are you working on now? I just finished making a list of fluorite localities and the better fluorite images from those localities that we might use to illustrate them. Soon Ill create threads for those countries. Substantially fewer than for calcite and quartz. Then on to do the same for Barite. I think Ill make a thread in the welcome to Best minerals where the moderators can list the things they are working on and we can also list what other non moderators are working on.

Mario,I don't know what happened, but though I don't agree from what I have seen so far that the Belgian calcites are generally as good those from Elmwood Tenessee, I am sure that when Harjo reads your post that he will explain what happened. I suspect his response will range somewhere from "you have to be joking about them being of the same quality right? to Woops, I screwed up and left out your remarks. If you guys want to make the statement that they are as good, Ill let you do that, but I may want to add a statement that there are collectors who disagree with the statement. Unless the specimens from one locality are overwhelmingly better than those from other localities, I as much as possible try to let the pictures do their own talking and let the readers of the articles of the articles make up their own mind. We always cheer for the home team, win or loose. A former curator of the American Museum of Natural history in New York City described it rather well when talking about Bisbee cuprites. He said that their flattering comparison to British counter parts allowed a patriot a pardonable thrill of pride.

Well I don't agree with what Harjo said that the Belgian calcites can be named as "world class", and that they can be compaired by specimens from locality's such as the Elmwood Mine. And that is what I tried to explaine with some samples a few weeks ago in my message that is now deleted by the moderator.

It is true that in the past some realy excellent Calcite specimens have been collected in the Quarry's in Southern Belgium. But for color, lustre, transparency, crystal size, matrix, and aestetics off course... in my opinion, they never reached the quality to be named such as "world class".

Mario,Where did you make your comments? Here in the Best Minerals Calcite, Belgium form? I can't imagine any of the moderators here would delete such remarks. I know I didn't see them. Those kinds of remarks are perfectly OK here. The guy writing the article may or may not choose to integrate them into the actual article. If someone made a counter claim about a value judgment I wrote about in one of my articles I would probably at least indicate in the article that others didn't agree with my position and then let the pictures do their own talking. I suspect that when Harjo gets around to it he will comment on this complaint of yours, but I think he probably doesn't know anything more about it than I do.

Mario, for the good order: I did NOT delete any messages, someone else did, maybe because the thread was getting too long but the exact reason I don't know.About taking your comment serious, well I did.....if you had looked carefully you would have noticed that in the Biesmeree part I changed "rival any" to "rival many" (one can hardly oppose to that, can one?), the comparison with Elmwood was removed by me immediately after your first initial message quite a long time ago and in the Charleroi part I added "in my humble opinion" after the "world class" statement, and that it is, my opinion, stated as such, it is not presented as an accepted fact.I hope you can live with these formulations, I do appreciate your knowledgeable input greatly and I'll always try to incorporate the input in the articles, so please keep up the helping hand!

Rock, yes I made my comments here on this topic on the Belgian Calcite forum, and Harjo already comfirmed that there are some messages deleted by someone, but he also don't now who deleted these messages. I can not imagine that they were removed because of that this thread was getting to long like Harjo said, because there are threads on this site who have more than thousand reply's...

Harjo, I noticed already that you have edited some of your "world class" remarks, and that you have removed the comparison that the Belgian Calcites could be compaired with the Elmwood ones. And I can live with the changes that you have made in the article.

Thanks Mario!Just a short sideline on the Elmwood comparison, of course the bulk of specimens from Biesmeree can't compare to those from Elmwood, I totally agree, it's just that I have seen a couple in a Liege collection that do, really amazing specimens (they were only out in the open shortly during an exhibition). Also some of the very best Landelies specimens can compete with many when it comes to aesthetics, size, shape, matrix, lustre and colour, but again, only a few of those specimens have been found.

Those are nice calcites indeed. One of the questions I would like us to answer for questioning minds is one fundamental to all collectors. Namely, Can I get one? The way to best answer this one is to give some idea about how many specimens were produced, especially from some of the best pockets. How large do the crystals get. The guy who dug these things or has collected in the quarry automatically knows this stuff, but it is surprising how few times this knowledge is passed on to others. And I am writing this not just for you, but for all authors here in Best minerals and those that may wish to write an article.

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